The New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players (NYGASP) concludes its 49th season (Founded by and Artistic Director Albert Bergeret) with a double bill of Gilbert & Sullivan’s first two extant collaborations, The Sorcerer and Trial By Jury on Saturday, April 6 and Sunday, April 7 at New York’s Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College (68th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues).
Originally billed as a “Dramatic Cantata,” Trial By Jury was written as a one-act afterpiece for Offenbach’s La Perichole. Edwin, tiring of his sweetheart Angelina, falls in love with another and Angelina accordingly hauls him into court for breech of promise. Though both Jury and Judge indicate that they have had similar episodes in their own pasts, they have little sympathy for him. Finally, the Judge, disgusted at the objections and eager to get away, marries Angelina himself.
Set in a quaint English village, The Sorcerer is the story of Alexis, a young military officer who purchases a love-at-first-sight potion from a respectable and old-established Family Sorcerer. Of course, this potion is compounded on the strictest of moral principles so as to have no effect on married persons. The power of love is tested when, after drinking tea spiked with the potion, the whole village finds itself engaged in hilarious mismatches – including the sorcerer himself!
The shows feature NYGASP veterans and new company members including Daniel Greenwood, Cameron Smith, Amy Maude Helfer, Michelle Seipel, Matthew Wages, Hannah Holmes, James Mills and David Macaluso among others.
Performances are Saturday, April 6 at 2:00 pm* and 7:30 pm and Sunday, April 7t at 3:00 pm
*Family Overture: Musical introduction and plot summary made entertaining for the entire family (12:45 in theatre prior to the Saturday afternoon performance)
For information and to purchase tickets please visit www.nygasp.org/
